Bangalore/Mumbai: HDFC Property Fund, the private equity arm of Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, has raised $250 million (around Rs.1,500 crore today) through an offshore fund. It hopes to raise another $150 million by the end of the year, said a person directly familiar with the development who did not want to be named.

On Friday, HDFC Property Fund informed the BSE that it had raised the capital through its second international fund, saying “the recently closed fund will focus on investing primarily in residential property developments in major cities across India”.

Benchmark indices ended flat on Friday amid reports that a Malaysian airlines crashed on Thursday near the Ukraine-Russia border after being hit by a missile. The 50-unit S&P CNX Nifty ended above the 7,600 mark on Friday, while the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the week in the green.

On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth $97.36 million, while domestic institutional investors sold $47.99 million, according to provisional data on the exchanges. In YTD, FIIs have bought $11.81 billion worth of shares.

The Supreme Court today decided to hear the cross-appeals filed by Air India Management and workers union against the order of the Bombay High Court which dealt with various contentious issues arising out of the Justice Dharmadhikari report on the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India.

A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha sought their responses within six weeks and posted the matter for hearing after 10 weeks.

The month of July is yet to reveal some more surprises. After a spree of launches so far from Nissan Sunny facelift to several limited and special editions from Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Renault and Chevrolet, the automakers are leaving no stone unturned to get most out of the season. Where Maruti has brought in limited edition of Ritz and Ertiga, Chevrolet introduced special Manchester United Limited edition of Beat during the football fever. Renault introduced second anniversary edition of Duster, Hyundai launched Grand i10 LPG edition while Volkswagen too joined the movement and launched facelift Polo hatch. Are we missing something? Yes, there will be much touted Honda Mobilio MPV coming in a few days besides a couple of hot wheels from German luxury carmakers. Here is the chronological brief synopsis of each.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Friday castigated the government’s fuel pricing policy saying it gave undue benefit of Rs 667 crore to Essar Oil and Reliance Industries, and called for renegotiating rates at which diesel is bought from private refiners.

State-owned fuel retailers buy diesel from private refiners as their own production is insufficient to meet domestic demand.

State-run telecom firm MTNL has shown profit of Rs 7,825 crore on books for 2013-14 on account of some write back provisions, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. It had last posted annual profit of Rs 211.7 crore in 2008-09.

Travel companies are fielding questions about safety of airlines and flight routes, especially towards Europe, a day after the Malaysia Airlines disaster. There were no immediate cancellations on Malaysia Airlines, but bookings were likely to take a hit in the coming days, sources said.

Travel to Ukraine and parts of eastern Europe are seeing subdued demand. The travel advisory to Ukraine by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK was updated after Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was “shot down” by rebel fighters in the area around Torez in Donetsk.

Anil Ambani group companies - Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power - reported a modest profit growth in the first quarter of 2014-15 compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Reliance Infrastructure's profit was up 10 per cent to Rs 457 crore compared with Rs 415-crore in the first quarter of last year.

State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) said there was a serious oil leakage from a damaged pipeline at Kamote in Navi Mumbai along the Sion-Panvel highway. The line developed a crack, losing thousands of litres.

While officials feared some of the oil might have entered the green mangroves area, the company said representatives from the local forest department observed the mangroves were away from the site and not affected.

India's largest information technology services provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), said it continued to rely on H1-B visa for its employees as the rejection rate in the L1 category remained high.

TCS had filed for 11,700 H1-B visas this year and has received approval for 5,700 so far. "We have not been yet told the rejection numbers, so I think we may get a few more approved. Last year, too, we had received approval for 5,800-6,000 visas. Rejection in the L1 category is still high," said Ajoy Mukherjee, global head of human resources at TCS. Last year, TCS had applied for 9,000 H1-B visas.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.